Start Your Aircraft Project With EAA’s SportAir Workshops

The Experimental Aircraft Association was founded on the idea that building your own aircraft is in the realm of possibility. For those who wish to learn the skills necessary for building an airplane with your own two hands, the EAA offers the SportAir Workshops.

“EAA SportAir Workshops have been offered for 26 years,” said Tom Otte, manager of the program. “There are over 45 classes covering seven aircraft building topics offered each year all over the United States and at Oshkosh, Wisconsin (during EAA AirVenture). The EAA SportAir Workshops are taught by EAA members who have vast experience in each of their fields. They’ve built their own aircraft and assisted with many other owners’ projects. Many of them are A&P mechanics and EAA technical counselors as well.”

AirVenture Workshops

During AirVenture from July 20-26, daily workshops are offered at 8:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. CDT, covering sheet metal, fabric covering, TIG welding, gas welding, composites and wood construction. These are all skills that homebuilders use, according to Otte.

These workshops follow a lecture then hands-on practice project format. 

“The AirVenture Workshops are free as part of your AirVenture admission and are generously supported by Aircraft Spruce & Specialty,” Ottoe said.

Women Only 

There is even a Women’s Introduction to Building a Metal Airplane workshop offered at 11 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday during AirVenture.

“[It’s] for women, led by women,” he said. “The workshop explores many of the basic tools and skills involved in building a metal airplane in a friendly, relaxed, and fun environment. Be ready to measure, punch, drill, deburr, pull rivets, and more. No previous experience is necessary. Each participant builds a useful Zenith three-ring binder and walks away with lots of pride in their achievements.”

Travel Program

Realizing that not everyone can make it to AirVenture, the EAA SportAir Workshops’ travel program can come to you. 

Mike Dooley,  a longtime aviation fan and the proud builder of a Van’s RV-8, serves  as one of the instructors. FLYING caught up with him as he was preparing for a weekend build course in Salt Lake City.

“In 2012 the local EAA chapter asked if anyone could teach riveting basic electrical or composites, so I started doing that locally,” said Dooley, a resident of Kansas City, Missouri. “Then in 2024 EAA reached out to me and asked if I would be willing to be a workshop instructor, so I signed on for that, and so now I travel around, doing different workshops in different parts of the country. I alternate between teaching sheet metal and electrical.”

More information about the online classes can be found on the EAA website. 

Classes are limited to 16 students, and sometimes they are held at colleges that have an aviation maintenance program. The cost varies, and  the materials, tools, and safety gear are provided.

Dooley spent 30 years in the Army, so he knows a lot about adult education. He pointed out that you have to be able to adapt to multiple skill sets and different personal and vocational backgrounds.

“…You have to assume that they have never touched a tool before,” Dooley said. “In every class, I will have some that fall into that category. In every class, I can probably count on there being an A&P or an engineer, or two or three. When I was in Frederick, Maryland, I had two engineers from United Airlines taking the class, and I had a blacksmith, just a whole bunch of people that were thinking about building kitbuilt aircraft, and one of them, as it turned out, was an FAA administrator. I found that out after the class.”

Dooley begins each class explaining and demonstrating tools.

“And within a couple of hours, everybody is on a level playing field, so to speak,” he said.

In the sheet metal class, scrap material is used to learn the fine art of riveting.

“It’s just an introductory project to show how to squeeze rivets, drive rivets, and so forth,” he said. “And then once we move past that, the next project is what we call a wing project, and it’s like a little bit of wing section that has a hinge, or you can think of it as a flap, and there’s also an inspection plate on it, like you would have an inspection cover under a wing on a Cessna.”

Dooley finds that his students finish the weekend class with new skills and a sense of accomplishment.

“They grow very quickly in these workshops, because we do hands-on projects, whether it’s electrical or sheet metal or composites or whatever,” he said. “We give them a little bit of theory and get as quickly as we can into the hands-on skills that they need to build a safe aircraft.”